U.S. and EU fail to isolate Iran

China, Russia, India and Turkey move into the lucrative void left by U.S. and EU sanctions that aim to halt Iran's nuclear program.

Reporting from Washington — Efforts by the United States and its European allies to build a united front to halt Iran's nuclear program are facing increasingly bold resistance from China, Russia, India and Turkey, which are rushing to boost their economies by seizing investment opportunities in defiance of sanctions imposed by the West.

The Obama administration and the European Union opted to try to toughen United Nations sanctions against Iran with their own unilateral restrictions on foreign companies that do business with Tehran's energy sector, hoping that squeezing the country's most lucrative industry can force the Islamist government to bend on its nuclear program.

But the four countries condemned the additional sanctions, and in recent weeks went further: Since the new U.S. sanctions took effect July 1, all four have moved ahead with trade and investment deals that violate the sanctions or threaten to do so in the future.

The countries say they will honor the weaker set of sanctions imposed on Iran in June by the U.N. Security Council, but are under no obligation to follow the more stringent rules that the United States and European Union tacked on in July.

The U.S. sanctions prohibit petroleum-related sales to Iran, yet China and Turkey have sold huge cargoes of gasoline to Tehran, and Russian officials say they will begin shipping gasoline as well later this month, according to industry officials. The four countries also have signed deals or opened talks on investments worth billions of dollars in Iran's oil and gas fields, petrochemical plants and pipelines.

The countries "are making it very clear they are not going to go along with the new American and European efforts to ratchet up pressure on Iran," said Ben Rhode, an analyst with the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

Although China's economic ties with Iran have been growing for 15 years, the recent expansion of its business "has been amazing," said a senior European official, who asked to remain unidentified because of the diplomatic sensitivity of the issue.

"Sanctions will not hinder us in our joint cooperation," Sergei Shmatko, Russia's energy minister, declared last month in Moscow after signing an agreement for a long-term energy partnership with his Iranian counterpart.

Obama administration officials boast that the new sanctions already have begun to damage Iran's economy. European energy companies that have been key partners have canceled deals with Iran, and gasoline imports — badly needed because of Iran's limited refining capacity — have slumped.

Yet the U.S. dilemma is clear: If Iran can meet its needs with these eager partners, the sanctions lose much of their bite.

And if European companies see that the new rules simply shift Iran's lucrative business to competitors, they will pressure their governments to jettison the sanctions in hopes they can get back into the Iranian market.

U.S. and European officials acknowledge the danger of other countries snapping up this business, and are pressuring the governments not to allow their companies to do so.

President Obama has personally urged Chinese President Hu Jintao not to allow his country's energy companies to fill the vacuum, U.S. officials say. A high-level U.S. delegation, headed by the State Department's top nonproliferation official, Robert Einhorn, is traveling to Beijing this month to appeal to Chinese officials.

Einhorn told a House panel late last month that China is of special concern because "it has backfilled when a number of responsible countries have distanced themselves from Iran. We need to speak to the Chinese.…"

The United States and its allies are pressing Iran to give up its nuclear development program because they believe Tehran wants its own nuclear weapons. Iran insists its nuclear program is for civilian energy purposes.

The four countries say they don't want Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, but don't see why they shouldn't make money off Iran's vast resources. China and India are also eager to lock up energy supplies for their fast-growing economies.

The U.S. sanctions seek to punish companies that sell refined petroleum products to Iran, or help Iran refine them. The U.S. government can fine foreign companies, but the biggest weapon is its ability to cut off companies' access to the U.S. market — a powerful threat to most international concerns.

The European Union sanctions don't target refined petroleum sales, but penalize companies for investing in the energy industry, as well as banking, shipping, insurance, transportation and nuclear-related industries.

Russia and China say they were surprised and disappointed that the Americans and Europeans, after pressing them to support U.N. sanctions on Iran for months, then adopted tougher sets of unilateral sanctions.

In recent days, senior officials of both countries have rejected calls from Washington to back off their business with Iran.